For You, Dad!

A very interesting thing happened to me when I was in Safford this weekend. I was actually lectured by my father (of all people) about my blog. I honestly never thought that he would even look at this page, but he was very upset with my because of my inattention to my blog lately. He checks it every day, and says that he is disappointed every time he sees that I haven't posted. Well, who woulda thunk? I know that I've been slacking off lately, but it's been a rough couple of weeks for me, and I am really having a hard time finding things to write about. I'm busy all the time, but nothing seems interesting enough to be blog-worthy.

So I'm going to try and repent by posting a nice long post tonight, even though it's definitely past my bedtime.

Today was Emma's last ballet class for this session, and boy, is that a relief! We do classes through the city parks and rec department, and we've had good luck so far. But this time we really hit the bottom of the barrel as far as teachers go. I have nothing against older people, but 70-something CRANKY grandmothers should not be allowed to take out their frustrations on 3 and 4 year-old kids. Her name is Ronell, and she is one of the worst teachers I have ever seen, for a multitude of reasons. I will only list a few, because I would hate to be seen as a CRANKY lady myself.

1. In the creative dance portion of class, it is not acceptable to tell the kids that they can not be creative. If they feel like swaying their hips while they march in a single-file line behind you (the teaching method of choice for Ronell), then they are allowed to be free and wiggle away.

2. Grabbing the kids and yanking them around to where you want them to be is NEVER OK. I'm serious, I've almost punched this lady a couple of times in the past couple of months for this.

3. When teaching toddlers, it is really not a good idea to do 1 thing for more than 3-4 minutes. This is especially applicable when all 8 kids are hanging upside-down on the bar as the teacher tells all of the parents how she hurt herself yesterday and will not be dancing with the students today because the pain has travelled from her ankle to her calf to her knee to her hip............. you get the idea.

4. If 8 3 year-olds are wiggling all over the floor and are completely inattentive, maybe the teacher should stop the lecture on French ballet terms and LET THEM WIGGLE (to the music) for a while. We're paying for her to tire them out, not teach them French, right?

Andrew put it best when he said that Emma's dance class today was one of the most brutal hours of his life. I just had to respond, "Well, how'd you like to be one of the kids? They've been doing the exact same things for the last 9 weeks!"

OK, my rant is over. Trust me, I could go on and on, but I will choose to stop lest I start to get out of control. Let's just say that we have enrolled Emma in gymnastics for the next session, and will not approach another ballet class unless we know FOR CERTAIN who the teacher is!

I am actually impressed with how graceful Emma can be when she's dancing. When she gets a little older we'll enroll her in ballet again. I just want to get past the pre-ballet class she's old enough for now because they teach them the same exact things every single session. I figure if I'm paying for it, she ought to actually learn something new every 3 months!

Frank was more than content to play with his cars while watching the girls. No ballet for this kid! (Although his infatuation with Mom's red high-heeled shoes does have his father a tad worried!)